SeedBlink Blog

Dear entrepreneur,

Once again, I was reminded that anything is possible if you surround yourself with the right people who have the same drive and desire to make it happen. June had so many milestones and reasons to celebrate.

The local law for crowdfunding under the European Crowdfunding Regulation was approved by the Romanian Parliament earlier this week. The European regulation promotes cross-border crowdfunding services to facilitate access to the entire EU single market through a single authorization based on a single set of rules. We welcome this event and the support of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) and the Ministry of Finance to enact this European legislation and pave our way to Europe with healthy steps.

To continue working on our mission to build an efficient investment infrastructure for individual and institutional investors, I am happy to announce the release of some new projects in which we have invested a lot of energy, such as the opening of our second international office in Greece, the secondary market as a product, some really rewarding offline events and a community platform for investor networking.

With these new features we aim to support asset trading between investors, the effectiveness of the process and last but not least the community.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who supported us, who participated in our offline events in Bucharest and Sofia, who interacted at Techsylvania and during our Greece tour or who already joined our SeedBlink Circle community.

Don't miss the lively networking experiences happening, the ecosystem is growing and becoming more eager to actively participate and be the fuel for Europe.

As Dealroom puts it very well: It's time for Europe to build a new Palo Alto!

Andrei Dudoiu,

Managing Partner & President of BoD, SeedBlink 

Portfolio Updates

• mk2 Biotechnologies, WACKER and TUM are jointly developing a process for the large-scale production of antimicrobial peptides based on sustainable fermentation.
• Kinderpedia plannes to further expand its operations across the globe, potentially covering an additional 550 schools in 32 countries.
• The Outfit Romanians, personal styling service, over €750.000 in seed funding.
• easySales has secured €468,000 in a bridge round on SeedBlink to expand into the UK and US.
• Mocapp has raised €335,000 in a pre-seed round to expand its L!NK solution in the UK market.

Dive into the full June edition of Portfolio Companies Updates.

Community Voice

Feedback is what moves us further. We have asked our portfolio companies to share their thoughts on raising a round, and we hope you find these insights useful as you move toward fundraising.

“My advice for tech entrepreneurs looking to fund their growth using the power of a community of investors is to look for and choose a platform that you resonate with, that shares your mission, a platform & its people with which you feel you can have good working relationships. For example, I worked with Eric Bartha from SeedBlink and we had an excellent relationship going forward; we talked a lot, and we were in touch on a lot of matters, and I think this was important.”

Tinu Bosinceanu, Founder and CEO of Upgrade Education

Read all the feedback here.

Is your startup also looking for funding? Look here.

Boost your startup

Give your startup a leg up with Zendesk

ZenDesk is giving 6 months of free access to qualified startups. Slack, Mailchimp and Shopify used their platform for customer support and had great success. Get more information about how to apply here.

Startup Battlefield 200 by TechCrunch

For the first time ever, TechCrunch editors will present a selection of founders who will be featured in person at TechCrunch Disrupt, Oct. 18-20 in San Francisco. It's still a competition, and 200 will be selected from thousands of applicants. Of those, 20 will be selected for additional training and given the opportunity to pitch on the Disrupt stage as Startup Battlefield finalists. Apply here before July 31.

Tech news and trends

Presto Ventures is now ready to finance startups from CEE

Prague-based Presto Ventures has announced the closing of its second fund of 30 million euros. The fund intends to make seed and pre-seed investments in no less than 40 B2B startups from the CEE region, including the Baltics, the Balkans and Ukraine. Presto can invest up to €3 million and says it remains open to follow-on rounds. You might be interested in this! Find more here.

Food for thought

Seeking product-market fit in a down market? Hire freelancers to manage your burn rate

The global economy is facing winter: 8% inflation, China in lockdown, a war in Europe, collapsing capital markets, a never-ending pandemic, and a looming recession. But for the world of technology and startups, winter is already here. So how should you play your cards and keep growing in austerity mode? Read the experts' advice here.

Startups are using a new tool for fundraising. But are SAFEs really that... safe?

For startups that are still in the early stages and often only have one idea, it can be difficult to get investors on board. That's why more and more are opting for a quick, alternative way to bank money while looking for a longer list of investors. This is SAFE (simple agreement for future equity): a way for investors to put money into a startup without having to agree on the current value of the company. See how SAFEs work here.

Startups must reevaluate how they hire and develop talent

“My biggest recommendation to business leaders seeking to secure top talent is to think differently — look for the personalities and skill sets that are going to work best for your team and focus on upskilling through learning on the job. This will reward you with the strongest, most successful revenue teams in the industry.” Why? See here.

6 Reasons Why Developers Would Work For A Startup

The Recursive discussed with three professionals from Romania, working at FintechOS, Sessions, and Codesilk to find out how to keep high-quality tech developers, both newbies as well as more mature ones. Find out more and get inspired to develop a creative job proposal here.